This application relates to a process and device for preserving carbonation of carbonated beverage during consumption. According to the present invention, when a user dispenses the carbonated beverage in a bottle or other similar container, the gaseous carbon dioxide content in the carbonated beverage can be preserved from leakage or escaping to the surrounding atmosphere.
Various kinds of carbonated beverage, such as "COCA COLA", "PEPSI", and "7-UP", are the most common and popular beverages nowadays. The compressed carbon dioxide in carbonated beverage provides a familiar feeling to thirsty consumers. Carbonated beverage is generally on sale in container such as an airtight can or bottle package for the preservation of compressed carbon dioxide.
The most popular capacities of the bottled carbonated beverage are 1.2 liter, two liters and even three liters. It is because the large capacity of the bottle package is relatively cheaper in price and beneficial to environmental protection. Most family and company consumers purchase the bottled carbonated beverage and reserve in refrigerator. However, all the current containers of the carbonated beverage bare serious shortcomings described hereafter.
For canned carbonated beverage, the consumer has to finish the whole can immediately, otherwise all the compressed carbon dioxide in the remainder will escape to the atmosphere after a while, and that the remaining beverage will become flat.
For bottled carbonated beverage having a capacity more than a liter, if the consumer cannot finish the whole bottle of carbonated beverage immediately after it is opened, no matter how tightly the cap being rescrewed to the bottle, the remaining carbonated beverage will gradually lose its carbonation due to the loss of gaseous carbon dioxide from within the bottle container and more specifically, inside the space right above the surface of the beverage when the cap is opened every time to pour out the beverage, thus the remaining beverage in the bottle will become flat soon.
In fact, there has long been the market need to preserve carbonation during the consumption of a large bottle of carbonated beverage such as soda beverage ever since its appearance on the market in the 1970's. As a matter of fact, there have been 5 U.S. patents issued after 1979 to inventions aiming to or advertised to preserve carbonation during the dispensing of bottled carbonated beverages. They are U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,723,670, 4,860,932, 4,932,544, 5,635,232 and 5,025,953.
The U.S. Pat. No. 4,723,670 (Trade Name: Fizz Keeper) simply pumps atmospheric air into the bottle after each regular opening and dispensing, but the problem is that atmospheric air contains very little percentage of carbon dioxide. One can pump a lot of air into the bottle and make the bottle very hard and that may lead people to feel the beverage in t he bottle is very well carbonated. But, as a matter of fact, it is not much different from not using this pump at all, because regular air doesn't help. Actually, it has only applied the regular mechanism of a regular bicycle tire pump to the new objective-preservation of carbonation during the dispensing of bottled carbonated beverages, unsuccessfully albeit.
The U.S. Pat. No. 4,860,932 (Trade Name: Soda Matic) uses a pipe inserted into the bottle and utilizes the pressure inside the bottle to push the beverage out through the pipe. Eventually the beverage jets out from the nozzle and into a cup and generates huge amount of bubbles. However, after all the bubbles are gone, the dispensed beverage inside the cup is almost dead flat which is even worse than not using this device.
The U.S. Pat. No. 4,932,544 (Trade Name: Soda Saver) uses a latch to cap the bottle. It may be easy to open the bottle by simply squeezing the handles, but other than that, it is not different from not using such a device at all.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,635,232 simply adds external carbon dioxide source into the carbonated beverage container.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,025,953 is a more involved art. It basically tries to minimize the space inside a carbonated beverage bottle after each dispensation. But it is too mechanically complicated to use and unpractical to commercialize.
On the other hand, the U.S. Pat. No. 4,105,142 and other cited prior arts basically disclose typical liquid dispensers for dispensing predetermined quantity of liquid at one time. However, no liquid dispenser in the art can preserve the carbonation or carbon dioxide content especially during the consumption of a carbonated beverage such as soda beverage in a bottle.
In view of the above cited prior arts, they all share the following commonalties:
(1) Dispense liquid from a source container to a secondary container with predetermined capacity. PA1 (2) Close the connection between the source container and the secondary container. PA1 (3) Further dispense from the secondary container.
In other words, they all serve the purpose of dispensing a certain quantity of liquid in a quick and accurate way only. None of them discovered or had the object or effect of trapping the highly pressured gases from within the source container during the whole process of dispensing. Their specifications and claims all fail to suggest, mention, imply, or allude to any purpose or effect of preserving carbonation of the beverage or keeping any kind of highly pressured gas inside the source container from escaping to the outside environment during dispensing.
Each and every one of the above arts certainly is adapted to dispense any liquid, including carbonated soda beverages. But none of them has provided or specified an explicit and secured high-pressure resistant airtight sealing mechanism such as an O-ring associated with a gland structure, for the purpose of keeping the highly pressured contents inside the source container from escaping to the outside. The highly pressured (about 5 atm) contents involved herewith are: highly pressured gaseous carbon dioxide, the soda beverage, and the considerable amount of dissolved carbon dioxide that it contains. The lack of such an explicit and secured high-pressure resistant airtight sealing mechanism has made it physically impossible to trap the highly pressured contents inside a soda bottle, hence unfit to serve the purpose of preserving carbonation, even though one can still insist on using them upon carbonated beverages without the effect of saving the carbonation.